Prior to his election in the House, Heck served as a member of the Washington House of Representatives, as well as founder and CEO of a television channel modeled after C-SPAN called TVW (Television Washington).[2] TVW is credited with the first-ever televised state court proceeding.[3]

Based on analysis of multiple outside rankings, Heck is an average Democratic member of Congress, meaning he will vote with the Democratic Party on the majority of bills.

Biography

Heck is a small business owner. He co-founded TVW and won a Emmy for a documentary he wrote and produced. He previously served in the State House of Representatives in the 1980s and served as Majority Leader until 1986. He also served as Chief of Staff to Gov. Booth Gardner.[4]

2013-2014

Issues

Campaign themes

2012

Heck listed some of his platform on his website:

Social Security and Medicare

In the past few years we’ve seen a renewed effort by Republicans in Congress to dismantle Medicare and privatize Social Security. These vital programs have provided necessary medical assistance for millions of American seniors and have lifted millions more out of poverty. Congress needs to come up with ways of fixing these programs that don’t involve stripping seniors of benefits or coverage.
[6]

Congress needs to ensure that TRICARE and the VA provide the highest quality medical care in the world to veterans, servicemembers and their families. Congress also needs to make sure our veterans get the education, job opportunities, benefits and mental healthcare necessary to help them all make the transition back into civilian life.[7]

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Heck is available dating back to 2012. Based on available campaign finance records, Heck raised a total of $2,053,754 during that time period. This information was last updated on April 5, 2013.[12]

Analysis

Lifetime voting record

According to the website GovTrack, Heck missed 0 of 96 roll call votes from January 2013 to April 2013. This amounts to 0.0%, which is better than the median of 2.2% among current congressional representatives as of April 2013.[17]

Net worth

2011

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org - The Center for Responsive Politics, Heck's net worth as of 2011 was estimated between $4,219,067 and $9,435,000. That averages to $6,827,033, which is higher than the average net worth of Democratic Representatives in 2011 of $5,107,874.[18]

Voting with party

July 2013

Denny Heck voted with the Democratic Party 93.1% of the time, which ranked 100 among the 201 House Democratic members as of July 2013.[19]